Brussels wants to attract filmmakers

19 May 2005

BRUSSELS – Brussels will get its own film bureau in September with the aim of attracting filmmakers of all genres to the Belgian capital.

The ‘Bruxelles-tournage’ film bureau will be co-financed by the Commission Communautaire française (COCOF), or French community commission, and the city of Brussels, to the tune of EUR 40,000 and EUR 10,000, respectively.

It seeks to provide an interface between producers and filmmakers seeking authorisation to shoot films, and property owners’ and local authorities, notably the city’s 19 communes.

The bureau will address requests for film shoots’ in public spaces as well as in private interiors, such as Art Nouveau buildings, hotels and museums.

Similar film bureaus have been set up in other major cities, including Paris, Barcelona and Boston, where they have met with much success.

Brussels’ film bureau will be based at the Grand Place, within the grand events bureau of the BITC, the city’s public tourism body.

Evelyne Huytebroeck, Brussels’ tourism minister, said on Wednesday that so far no central body has existed to funnel filmmakers’ requests in the city.

At present, the city gets about one request per day to shoot a scene for a film, according to Brussels’ Mayer Freddy Thielemans.

Directors Jaco Van Dormael et Frédérique Fonteyn are the ‘godfathers’ of the new film bureau.

[Copyright Expatica]

Subject: Belgian News